By Ben Brumfield, CNN
Nuclear scientists in Switzerland recently dropped some antimatter. The world didn't blow up, but there were some tiny explosions.
Scientists are hoping the experiment will teach them more about how the universe developed after the Big Bang.
Physicists with ALPHA Collaboration research group are trying to figure out how antimatter interacts with gravity, and if it produces "antigravity," says the group's founder, Jeffrey Hangst.
Their experiment mirrors the way Sir Isaac Newton came up with the law of gravity in the late 17th century.
Legend has it that an apple fell off a tree and hit the English nobleman on the head.
Newton got to thinking how gravity made the apple speed up as it fell.
By Azadeh Ansari, CNN
Everyone knows dinosaurs were gigantic, but they grew from tiny embryos just like birds do. What were these extinct reptiles like at this early stage of development?
Scientists have found some new clues that could shed light on this age-old mystery.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, scientists said they have discovered the oldest known collection of fossilized dinosaur embryos.
"In a way, I think we have set a new standard for dinosaur embryology," said paleontologist Robert Reisz, the lead study author.
By CNN's Laura Smith-Spark
Nearly two years after it was sent up to the International Space Station, a giant particle physics detector has provided its first results in the search for the mysterious "dark matter" believed to be a major component of the universe.
The international team running the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer released its initial findings Wednesday at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, in Switzerland.
The scientists are studying flux in cosmic rays, the charged high-energy particles that permeate space, for evidence of the invisible dark matter particles colliding with each other, leading to what is termed "annihilation."
Some scientists seem to take their cues from science fiction or fantasy novels.
Physicists in Texas have developed a method to make objects "invisible" within a limited range of light waves. It's not Harry Potter's invisibility cloak just yet, but scientists say it has a lot of potential.
The desire to become invisible dates back to the ancient Greeks, if not further. In mythological literature, gods and goddesses donned a headdress to disappear from sight. Like Potter's cloak, the "cap of invisibility" was imbued with magical powers.
A fixture in magic, the invisibility cloak has now advanced to science.
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Just in time for Albert Einstein's birthday Thursday, scientists delivered exciting news about how the universe works.
Last summer, physicists announced that they had identified a particle with characteristics of the elusive Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle." But, as often the case in science, they needed to do more research to be more certain.
On Thursday, scientists announced that the particle, detected at the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle-smasher, looks even more like the Higgs boson.
The news came at the Moriond Conference in La Thuile, Italy, from scientists at the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS and Compact Muon Solenoid experiments. These two detectors are looking for unusual particles that slip into existence when subatomic particles crash into one another at high energies.
Two regions of radiation encircle the Earth. They’re called the Van Allen belts, and they are a pair of dynamic regions of trapped radiation, separated by a void and held in place by the Earth's magnetic field. They protect the planet from the radiation of space and the effects of solar weather.
We’ve known about these two belts since James Van Allen, the eponymous astronomer, discovered them in 1958. It's important that we know as much as we can about the Van Allen belts and how they change, because most of Earth's satellites live in the region.
Two NASA probes detected a third radiation belt, which disappeared a few weeks later. It appears that solar weather caused its formation, and disappearance.
Human intelligence mysteries explained by chimpanzee brains
Even though humans and chimpanzees share 98% of their DNA, there is a great disparity in intelligence between the two species. Scientific American reports that a new study has revealed one reason why: During the first two years of life, human brains undergo a huge expansion in white matter - the connections between brain cells - at a rate twice that of chimpanzee brains.
Primate with venomous armpits discovered
National Geographic reports that a new species of slow lorises has been discovered in Borneo. Like other slow lorises, the N. kayan produces a toxic bite by rubbing its hands around venomous glands near its armpits and applying the poison to its teeth. Its bite can induce a predator into lethal anaphylactic shock.
Microbes ride troposphere from Asia to North America
ScienceDaily reports that more microbial species than ever thought before are traveling across the Pacific Ocean from Asia to North America via Earth’s troposphere. This layer of atmosphere pools and transports microbes, including several species of fungi and bacteria, during “plume events.”
During spring 2011, scientists collected samples in plumes originating in Asia to detect aerosols and pollutants. Now, using a newer culturing method that looks at biomass in the form of DNA, researchers are able to study bacteria and fungi in these samples that are thought to affect weather patterns. Many of these species are specially adapted to travel long distances in harsh conditions, challenging the old notion that the atmosphere is just a transient place for life.
Scientists use yeast to resurrect extinct enzymes
Scientists have reconstructed proteins and DNA from prehistoric yeast cells, Phys.org reports. By studying these enzymes, scientists can determine which types of sugars these ancient yeasts once digested, deepening their view of the evolutionary innovation of biological catalysts.
Goldenrod plant can smell danger
Many argue that plants are just as alive as we are. It is not news to scientists that plants are responsive to odors, but earlier instances of this were all plant-to-plant communication, phys.org reports. In a recent study, scientists determined that a tall goldenrod can sense a male fly’s sex attractant and start to prepare chemical defenses to protect itself from the female fly’s damaging eggs.
By Zaina Adamu, CNN
Could there be extraterrestrial life in our own Milky Way galaxy?
NASA’s Kepler mission, using an orbiting telescope equipped with a 95-megapixel camera and 42 charge-coupled devices, discovered that worlds, one-half to twice the size of Earth, exist in our galaxy.
Kepler is the first mission with the potential to identify Earth-sized planets that exist near the habitable zones of their stars, a landmark in astronomy because the finding could lead scientists to discover that, indeed, life exists in other places besides Earth.
The way Kepler detects planets is similar to how we detect Venus and Mercury from Earth. Every so often, there are events where Venus and Mercury pass the sun, briefly blocking a bit of the sunlight coming to Earth. From our perspective, each of these events, called a transit, is seen as a slow-moving black speck traveling across the sun.
Superman has had an eventful few weeks. First he quit his job at the Daily Planet, and now he has discovered the location of his home planet Krypton.
In "Action Comics" No. 14, released on Wednesday, the iconic superhero is summoned to an observatory where he's met by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. In real life, Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Tyson in the comic pinpointed Krypton, 27 years after it exploded. On that very night, its destruction is visible from planet Earth.
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Near death researcher describes 'afterlife'
You're about to go to "heaven" and live to tell about it. And your story will become the subject of scientific research.
It's the perfect day. You're strolling down a sidewalk, listening to an ensemble of bird songs, soaking up a balmy breeze fragranced with fresh spring flowers, and gazing up at a cloudless sky of pure azure.
Pleasantly distracted, you step off the sidewalk into the street. Brakes screech; horns blare; people shriek in horror. You snap back to reality ... just as the truck hits you.
You fly for yards like a rag doll; you land hard. You're numb all over and fading fast. It's all over; you know it. Your life flashes before you like an epic movie. The End.
You leave your body and look down at it. People are bending over it. Someone is sobbing uncontrollably. As the ambulance rushes up, a blinding light surges above you. It beckons you softly.
You follow it through a tunnel to a place much more vividly real and spectacular than the banner Sunday afternoon you just left behind. You are sure you have arrived in the hereafter.
Weeks later, you wake up to the steady beeps of an EKG monitor next to your hospital bed.
FULL STORYFiled under: Commentary • Discoveries